Director of Business Growth

Applied; East Hagbourne; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading innovation organization in the UK is seeking a Director of Business Growth to develop and lead a new function focused on supporting UK space companies at all stages of growth. This dynamic role involves managing a diverse team and providing strategic support to businesses in areas such as funding, commercialization, and international expansion. Candidates should have strong leadership skills and experience in high-technology sectors. A hybrid working model is offered, emphasizing collaboration and team engagement.

Benefits

Work from home option

Life Insurance

Wellness programs

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Sabbatical Opportunities

Salary sacrifice

Team social events

Extracurricular clubs

Cycle to work scheme

Qualifications

• Strong mix of leadership, commercial, and innovation expertise.
• Experience in the space sector or high-technology industries preferred.
• Proven experience leading business growth or commercialization functions.
• Track record of supporting companies from start-up to SME stage.
• Strong understanding of start-up and scale-up ecosystems.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Knowledge of advanced technologies or related industries.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Business Growth function with clear objectives.
• Manage a high-performing multidisciplinary team.
• Oversee a portfolio of high-potential businesses.
• Support companies to develop business strategies and access funding.
• Lead global market expansion efforts for companies.

Skills

Leadership

Commercial expertise

Innovation expertise

Stakeholder management

Partnership building

Team management

Job description

Location Hybrid ·Didcot, UK Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire (onsite 2 days week)

Team Business Development

Seniority Senior

• Closing:5:00pm, 9th Jan 2026 GMT

Perks and benefits

• Work from home option
• Life Insurance
• Wellness programs
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Sabbatical Opportunities
• Salary sacrifice
• Team social events
• Extracurricular clubs
• Cycle to work scheme

Candidate happiness

8.50 (1990)

Job Description

Director of Business Growth

The Role

We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Director of Business Growth to build and lead a new multidisciplinary business growth function. You will shape and deliver support for UK space companies at every stage of their growth journey – from start-up and spin-out through to scale-up and international expansion.

You will work closely with our three mission teams, including our business development teams, to identify companies with high growth potential, building a diverse portfolio of businesses and ensuring they receive structured support to accelerate their growth. This will include supporting them to develop their business and commercial strategies, find new funding and investment, validate their technologies with users and customers, and enter new domestic and international markets.

Reporting to the Chief of External Affairs, you will lead a team spanning strategy and insights, business support, innovation services, investments, and international growth, and work closely with other Catapult teams (e.g. Missions, business development, and our technical experts) to maximise impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Business Growth function, setting clear vision, objectives, and delivery plans.
• Build, develop, and manage a high-performing multidisciplinary team offering support across insights, business support, innovation, investment, and international expansion.
• Oversee and nurture a portfolio of high-potential businesses, providing structured support and setting ambitious growth plans with clear milestones.
• Design, refine and deliver products, services, and programmes that: Help start-ups and spin-outs with early-stage advice, customer validation, and business model development. Help scaling companies with product development, customer engagement, and entry into new markets. Facilitate access to Catapult expertise and infrastructure to accelerate company growth.
• Find and work with other expert delivery partners and suppliers in other organisations, e.g. Innovate UK, DBT and the private sector, to fill any gaps in our offer and ensure we can provide a broad spectrum of support to businesses.

Investment & Funding

• Support companies to access public and private funding and grants by helping them develop compelling business cases and value propositions.
• Oversee investor-readiness programmes, supporting companies in securing private investment through funding rounds.

International & Exports

• Lead support for companies expanding into global markets, including access to international export opportunities, and overseas presence.
• Work with companies to identify customer needs, design user-led products and services, and integrate offerings into wider customer ecosystems.
• Support companies in building customer strategies and scaling revenue streams.

About You

• We are looking for a candidate with a strong mix of leadership, commercial, and innovation expertise, ideally with experience in the space sector or other high-technology industries.
• Proven experience leading business growth or commercialisation functions.
• Track record of supporting companies to grow, whether from start-up through to SME stage or beyond.
• Strong understanding of start-up and scale-up ecosystems, including investment, public funding, customer development, and internationalisation.
• Strong leadership and team management skills, able to inspire and manage multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and partnership-building skills.
• Knowledge of the space sector, advanced technologies, or adjacent industries (e.g., aerospace, defence, data, telecommunications).
• Experience working in business growth capacity in an accelerator, Catapult, innovation agency, or consultancy environment.
• International business development experience, particularly in building overseas presence, exports, and supply chain development.

About us & how we work:

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work. This helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this:

• We care – for our people, our partners, and our planet
• We connect – and engage with people and ideas
• We learn – and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams. Our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual, providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us.

This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job. If you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

We offer a hybrid policy which is designed around collaboration, one 'anchor' day per week working with your direct team and another flexible day per week to be spent collaborating with other colleagues/customers.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult.

At Satellite Applications Catapult, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. We welcome candidates from all corners of the globe, but due to legal and logistical considerations, we want to be transparent about the potential visa-related challenges that could arise. Our ability to offer sponsorship will depend on the level of interest for our roles and salary level.

If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.

Please note that we offer study support (at our discretion) and on the job training will be provided.